Rim to add Android apps to BlackBerry?

Rim is currently pondering its smartphone strategy. While in the UK its market share has actually risen lately, worldwide it has taken something of a hammering along with Nokia, as Android’s star rises blazing brightly.

So naturally, the company is looking to tackle this issue, firstly with new handsets – including the new Torch 9850 which is the first all-touch BlackBerry, dropping the keyboard.

But when it comes to apps, it seems that Rim is actually looking to Android to help out, with the BlackBerry App World looking pretty meagre compared to Google and Apple’s colossal library of mobile applications.

According to a report on Bloomberg, Rim will be looking to make Android apps compatible with BlackBerry handsets next year.

These won’t be current BlackBerries on OS 7 (or earlier), but next-gen models running QNX, Rim’s new operating system which launched on the PlayBook tablet.

There’s no doubting that opening up access to 250,000 apps on Rim smartphones would certainly go some way to pepping up interest in the company’s hardware once again.

This is just speculation, mind, although Bloomberg has three sources who claim this is the case, and it’s a respected news site.

Along with the new BlackBerry Torch handsets we already mentioned, Rim recently unveiled new models for the Curve line: the 9350, 9360 and 9370 (all slight variations on the affordable BlackBerry theme).

However, it’s these next-gen QNX phones everyone is really going to be watching.